Perseus of Macedon

Perseus of Macedon (212 BC-166 BC) was King of Macedon from 179 BC to 168 BC, succeeding Philip V of Macedon and preceding Andriscus. He was the last independent ruler of Macedon, which was annexed by the Roman Republic after his defeat at the Battle of Pydna.

Biography
Perseus was born in 212 BC, the son of King Philip V of Macedon and one of his concubines. In 180 BC, he staged a plot to make his father think that his brother Demetrius, a supporter of the Roman Republic, was a traitor, and his father had Demetrius executed; in fact, the Romans were seeking for him to be the heir to the throne, as he was a legitimate son of Philip. A year after Demetrius' execution, a distraught Philip died, and Perseus acceded to the throne. Perseus renewed his father's treaty with the Romans, but he was less willing to accept Roman control, and the ambitious Perseus began to restore Macedon as a regional power, ousting the Roman client ruler Abrupolis in Thrace, making an armed visit to Delphi, avoiding the Roman ambassadors to Macedonia, and making dynastic marriages. In 171 BC, Rome declared war on Macedon, and, while Perseus had some initial successes, he was decisively defeated at the Battle of Pydna, forcing him to surrender to Rome. The Antigonid kingdom was dissolved and replaced by four republics, and the Romans crushed a rebellion by Andriscus, a man claiming to be Perseus' son, in 148 BC; two years later, they annexed Macedonia as a province.